Make Your Own Homemade Snowshoes

SAFETY FIRST: Ask an adult to help with tools you haven't used before.

Webelos Scouts in the Daniel Boone Council in North Carolina use plastic CPVC pipe to make homemade snowshoes for their winter outings. Here’s how they do it.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED (makes one pair)

1 six-ounce can of CPVC clear cement

2 pieces of ¾-inch hot/cold CPVC pipe, each 10 feet long
(Although they look alike, CPVC piping will work better than PVC because CPVC tends to be a bit more flexible and less likely to crush. Schedule 80 is recommended.)

4 ¾-inch CPVC pipe tees (they’re shaped like the letter “T”)

20 45-degree-angle CPVC elbows (they’re shaped like elbows)

200 feet of ¼-inch hollow braid poly rope

Bungee cords, rope, Velcro or other materials to hold snowshoe to foot.

Tools

Yard stick or measuring tape

Hand saw, hack saw or PVC pipe-cutting tool

File or sand paper

Clamp vise or an extra set of hands

Flat work surface

WHAT YOU’LL DO

1. Cut the 10-foot-long pipes to the following lengths:

2 pieces, each 4 inches long

2 pieces, each 8 inches long

4 pieces, each 6 inches long

4 pieces, each 18 inches long

6 pieces, each 1-1/4 inches long

8 pieces, each 3 inches

You should end up with 26 cut pieces of pipe.

2. Using a file or sand paper, deburr — or smooth — the cut edges.

3. On a flat work surface, start building the front section of the shoes following these steps. The shoe is built in two halves; start with the front half and glue the pieces in place as you go.

Front Half

1. Put one 45-degree-angle piece of piping on each end of one 4-inch piece of pipe.

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31 Comments on Make Your Own Homemade Snowshoes

Take my word – BUY SNOWSHOES INSTEAD! After purchasing all the supplies we needed we could have easily afforded store-bought snowshoes. Also, this project takes FOREVER. We have already invested several hours and are only half way done. Seriously. Buy. the. snowshoes.

To make it easier to back up and turn, I’m going to use extra 45s on the back end to give it a slight upward lift. This is a copy of a design seen on a snowshoe for sale. Will be making mine this week.

I like the step by step pictures. These look really heavy though. Why not just heat the PVC and bend it to shape? Use steam or fill them with heated sand to heat them. All those connectors add weight and are a failure point.

When using the specified dimensions, these things are HUGE. They are almost twice the size of my Tubbs snowshoes and would have been very difficult to walk in. I recommend cutting the 18″ pieces to 14″, the 3″ piece at the toe to 2″, and the 8″ cross piece to 7″. Much more manageable at this size.

I don’t know the weightage of the snowshoes, but if you wanted them to hold more you could probably use stronger rope. The weight doesn’t really affect the pipe because the pipe is there to push down the snow.